Some morning I hope I can get to work, just in one piece, calm and alive. Cars and trucks battling for space on the motorway distract our thoughts. Wouldn’t it be great if someone invented a car that you could just get into and it would do all the driving and automatically slot into the traffic so that there was no road rage, just people sat in cars doing stuff they wanted to do. This might be a pipe dream, something that I could hope for, that I can not see – but is probably not going to happen until technology improves many years from now. Would we really want this?
It would make our lives more comfortable with technology as the master!
The picture shows a field of buttercups that I took last year. Somedays the time is against me and the picture will not be taken on that day. When the days are cold, we can but hope for the warmer weather. When the world is in pain, the earth is groaning we will hope for a brighter, more peaceful God loving earth.
24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?
Ask children what they hope for and you will probably be amazed at the variation. Some will have a shopping list of expensive things, other ideals like world peace, others will have such an enclosed view of their life that they answer in a dry comment “my bed”.
Does it not seem strange that as a society we seem to hope for things that we already have to some extent?
People hope for the next iPhone, the next technical device, a better computer, things! Even though we have many things and they don’t really make our lives anymore connected. In fact somedays I despair as I walk around and see headphones connected into every persons ears and no one wanting to make eye contact.
I don’t usually relate many of my dreams to people, usually because they are so crazy and mad, but one evening I had a dark dream.
It felt real, it was lucid. I could see, smell and feel all the things around me. I ended up travelling to a place that I was told was hell. The place was a huge (endless proportions) cinema type seating arrangement room, all looking forward. Many millions of people were sat down, all moving and groaning with various emotions. Each had connected to them a face visor (like the virtual reality goggles) and all where connected into the arm of the chairs. All were comfortable and none were in pain, but none were aware of where they really where. I was running around trying to wake some up from there googles and seats, but most were too comfortable and enjoying themselves. I managed to wake one and she ran screaming from that place….
That night I awoke in a sweat and I prayed for a long time until morning arrived.
Are we on the way to this hell?
Are people so comfortable in their lives that they will not act to save others, or to save themselves?
My heart tells me that we have hope in Christ Jesus. All people have hope in Christ Jesus, but perhaps they need to be shaken out of their lethargic day dream of a life.
There are people out there who will not be saved because they choose not to be. They are so wrapped up in sinful lifestyles, in living a life of luxury for themselves.
34 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
Just like I suspect it was very hard for the slaves in America’s past to escape from slavery, now it is very hard for people who sin to escape from their lives, not because their lives are hard, but because they live in so much comfort. If they truly want a new life, to be reborn then Jesus is only waiting beyond an unlocked door. He is standing in the field of yellow buttercups beckoning each person to walk forward.
On this journey there are safe houses (like the quaker safe houses) to salvation. They are the churches, the communities of Christians that will pray for you. They have a hope founded in Christ. They may seem strange to some, they may even be derided by others, but they pray. Behind locked doors, in rooms, in gardens, in their country walks. They pray. They are not the salvation – that is only in Christ, but they are communities that help each other on this journey that we lead.
For they have a hope of things to come, when Jesus returns to make new His glorious creation.
Tonight I pray for all those people who are hurting. All those real slaves to hurtful sinful people. I pray God comes down and resolves this situation. I pray for the sinners who take people and make them slaves. I pray that they see their sin and that God will enter every life and make a difference.
In Jesus name.
Amen
with blessings
Graham
365 Exhortations 